Thermal insulation for buildings and other structures is available in the form of mats, batts, blankets and loose fill. Mats, batts and blankets are flexible products containing randomly oriented fibers bound together with a binder, and are generally prefabricated before being brought to a construction site and installed. In contrast, loose fill thermal insulation includes a large number of discrete fibers, flakes, powders, granules and/or nodules of various materials.
Efforts have been made to reduce the thermal conductivity of insulation. See for example U.S. Pat. App. No. 2005/0025952, directed to heat resistant insulation composites and methods of preparing them; U.S. Pat. App. No. 2005/0079352, directed to expandable microspheres for foam insulation and methods for preparing same; U.S. Pat. No. 6,864,297, directed to composite foam materials made from polymer microspheres reinforced with long fibers; U.S. Pat. No. 6,638,984, directed to microcellular foams, their method of production and uses thereof; U.S. Pat. No. 5,418,257, directed to modified low-density polyurethane foam bodies; U.S. Patent Application Nos. 2003/0087576 and 2003/0040239, directed to infrared radiation absorbing and scattering material dispersed on insulation material